Not a Shroud. 2020-21

Limpets, Common Coralweed and Seaweed.

Produced for the exhibition SHIFT, sponsored by Somerset Wildlife to draw attention to the ecology of the Somerset Coast.

I was in new territory. The beach was somewhere to walk and reach the sea, my eyes lifted to the horizon, or else looking down to search for interesting stones.

I had never properly seen seaweed before. The variety in their shapes and structure is extraordinary, especially to someone more used to looking at beautiful plants on land. And this is nature too: a whole new world! There is such beauty in seaweeds, from the large to the tiny, especially when seen in water where they move and grow. Out of it they are heavy and lifeless, rigid, clumsy, vulnerable. Through exposure to information about their role in climate interaction, and their uses in different cultures throughout the world, I see how algae can, or could, play such an important role in our future. We certainly don’t want to damage the ecosystems of the oceans, and the wealth of life inside them, as we have done our small shelf of land that we are trying to exist on. The embroidery is a way of expressing the beauty of the seaweeds, so new to my eyes, and my desire for others to see them likewise. I do not want the embroideries to be shrouds, to a form of life that has died. I want them to be a celebration of the richness of life, even in unfamiliar and as yet unknown forms. Can we celebrate forms in nature which we will not exploit? Can we enjoy beauty and strangeness, without killing it?